Australian counter-terrorism police have raided two homes in Melbourne reportedly linked to a Sri Lankan-born Australian national who appeared in a propaganda video for the Islamic State (IS) last year, the International Business Times reported yesterday.
Forty one-year-old, Sri Lankan-born Mohomed Unais Mohomen Ameen appeared in the video urging Australians and other foreign sympathisers to offer their services to the organisation's health service in Syria.
Ameen reportedly fled to Syria in 2014 and claims in the propaganda video that he is now working for the IS as a physiotherapist, treating up to 500 patients per week.
"We have staff from many other countries, physiotherapy doctors from Russia, physiotherapy doctors from Sham, physiotherapy doctors from Australia, from Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and that a few countries to be named," he said in the video.
"I would like to take this opportunity, call my brothers and sisters who have the medical background, medical knowledge, who [are] qualified or semi-qualified. We need the brothers and sisters to come and help us from all around the world."
According to the ABC, the searches were carried out on Thursday morning after warrants were issued for two addresses in the outer-northern Melbourne suburbs of Meadow Heights and Craigieburn.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has not yet confirmed the identity of the occupants. However the ABC reports that the two raided homes are believed to be those of Ameen's two ex-wives.
The AFP has refused to provide further details about the operation, saying that the investigation was ongoing, but confirmed that there was "no immediate danger" to the community.
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